The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received new information and requests
your urgent intervention in the following situation in Uzbekistan.

New information :

The Observatory has been informed of the release of Mr.
Norboy Kholjigitov, Former President and member of the Ishtikhan district branch of the
Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) in the Samarkand region.

According to the information received, on October 14, 2011, Mr. Norboy Kholjigitov was released on parole and
returned home in the evening.

The Observatory welcomes the release of Mr. Norboy Kholjigitov and thanks all the persons, institutions and
organisations who intervened in his favour and recalls that human rights
defenders in Uzbekistan continue to operate in a climate of fear.

However, the Observatory deplores that Mr. Kholjigitov's health has
seriously deteriorated in detention after six years and four months in a colony
and needs urgent medical care.

The Observatory also deplores the continued arbitrary detention of
eight other members of HRSU, namely Messrs. Nasim Isakov, Jamshid
Karimov, Zafar Rahimov, Yuldash Rasulov, Azamjon
Formonov, Khabibilla Okpulatov, Alisher Karamatov and
Gaybullo Jalilov, who remain today arbitrarily detained, notably despite
the serious deterioration of their health and calls for their immediate and
unconditional release.

The Observatory expresses its deep concern about their arbitrary
detention, which seems to merely sanction their human rights activities in
flagrant violation of the provisions of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on
December 9, 1998.

Background information :

The Observatory recalls that Mr. Kholjigitov had been arrested on
June 4, 2005 and sentenced on October 18, 2005 to ten years’ imprisonment on
charges of “extortion” (Article 165 of the Criminal Code), “slander” (Article
139), “fraud” (Article 168), “infringement to the life of the President”
(Article 158) and “infringement to the constitutional regime of the State”
(Article 159) by the Kattakourgane Criminal Court, District of Samarkand.
Mr. Kholjigitov suffered of bad conditions of detention. The cells
were not heated and 80 inmates were detained per cell. Mr. Kholjigitov lost a
lot of weight and was diagnosed with diabetes. He did not receive adequate
treatment in prison.

In addition, twenty days following the submission in November 2008 of
a complaint to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan under the reference
X.4175, Mr. Kholjigitov was tortured in detention. He was further threatened
that he would be sent to a psychiatric ward, if he continued with his
complaint.

In 2010, Mr. Norboy Kholjigitov was interrogated about a letter he
sent to the President on May 5, 2010 asking to be transferred to a prison clinic
for medical treatment, and subsequently accused of violating eight internal
rules of the prison[1]. On August 11, 2010, his wife who was visiting him in the prison was
interrogated by the security services (SNB) about the letter her husband had
sent to the President, and threatened. She was then requested to leave the
prison after the first day of her two-day visit.

During a visit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
representatives conducted from January 24 to 28, 2011 to prison colony U/Ya
64/61, Mr. Kholjigitov was placed in a solitary confinement cell of the Kasan
local police precinct of Kashkadarya region, where he was kept until January 28,
before being brought back to the U/Ya 64/61 colony. At the same period, the
colony’s chief medical practitioner had prescribed him to be placed in a medical
facility, but the head of the colony administration refused.

iii.Put an end to any act of
harassment - including at the judicial level - against Messrs. NorboyKholjigitov,
Nasim Isakov, Jamshid Karimov, Zafar Rahimov, Yuldash Rasulov, Azamjon Formonov,
Khabibilla Okpulatov, Alisher Karamatov and Gaybullo Jalilovas well as against all human rights defenders in Uzbekistan ;

iv.Comply with the
provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular
Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or
collectively, to promote the protection and fulfilment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, as well as
Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures
to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually
or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation,
de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a
consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the
present Declaration” ;

v.Comply with the
provisions of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the 2nd
Conference on the Human Dimension of the Cooperation and Security Conference in
Europe (CSCE) (1990), and guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in
accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other
international human rights instruments ratified by Uzbekistan.